Nushrat Bharucha says a film is always bigger than its actors, adds ‘it has to be credited to the entire team’

She’s happy that she’s busy round the clock, and even goes on to say that “I will happily do this job for 50 hours in a day too!” — actor Nushrat Bharucha is clearly smitten by her job. She has a lineup which includes Hurdang with Sunny Kaushal and Turram Khan opposite Rajkummar Rao. Her upcoming release, Dream Girl sees her playing the lead opposite Ayushmann Khurrana, whose character speaks in a girl’s voice.

In a scenario like this, where the male star has to almost lift a film entirely on his shoulders, didn’t Nushrat feel apprehensive, at any point, about her character not being noticed enough? “How could I have such apprehensions?” she asks, and continues, “All my other films have been about boys! Pyaar Ka Punchnama 1 and 2, Sonu Ke Titu ki Sweety (2018) were about boys only. I’m the last female actor who’d worry about that. For me, being part of a good film is far more important than having to think what my character is. Of course, it cannot be insignificant, or I cannot be hardly there in the film.”

Then what’s the criteria for choosing a film, if not the screen space or length of the role? The 34-year old says, “When I heard these films I’m doing, I listened to them as an audience. A simple thought is there: ‘Am I enjoying the narrations as an audience or not, will I pay money to go and watch this in the theatres?’ I’m a complete massy 1990s child, I love that era. I wouldn’t enjoy a film which has been said in a certain way already. I wouldn’t watch it again, but if something similar is said in a different way, there is something interesting added to it, it makes you watch it. When I heard these three films, I was really entertained, Dream Girl specifically. I needed to be a part of this film because it was so funny — from the first scene narrated to me, to me laughing throughout the film!”

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While she doesn’t succumb to the nitty-gritties, what is her take on the debate that when a film is successful, the male actor walks away with all the credit, which Kriti Sanon had also said recently?

“I don’t know when Kriti had said this,” Nushrat admits, “But if you ask me, a film always has to be credited to everybody, and not just the male or female star. Somebody writes the film, the thought is really the winner, then somebody who is executing it, the director is putting it out there. Then the producer executes it, and takes it to millions of people across the world. I think a film is largely always bigger than the actor, and it has to be credited to the entire team. That’s the thought I have, aage ka main jaanti nahi hoon.”